Anti-fingerprint

ANTI-FINGERPRINT NO more visible fingerprints.

Steel and glass are popular materials in architecture but when used in interiors they have a disadvantage fingerprints show very clearly. Materials that are within easy reach are often touched, mostly because they have a related function, but sometimes just because they are there. This affects almost all interiors and as such this area benefits most from anti-fingerprint and touch-proof coatings.

Steel and satin-finish glass surfaces are particularly affected by repeated touching. The appearance of cleanliness, whether desirable for aesthetic or hygienic reasons, vanishes when surfaces are covered in fingerprints. An anti-fingerprint coating can offer a suitable The coating itself is ultra-thin and steel that has been solution for this problem and in some cases makes it coated can be bent into shape without the coating possible to employ such materials in the first place. breaking or fracturing. This can be especially useful for With the help of these coatings fingerprint marks are the production of particular architectonic details, and

made practically invisible. The fingerprints are actually still there but thanks to the nanocoating they are almost imperceptible. The coating alters the refraction of the light in the same way the fingerprint itself does so that new fingerprints have little effect - one can think of the coating as a kind of enlarged fingerprint. The light reflections on the coating make steel or glass surfaces appear smooth, giving the impression of cleanliness that many users have come to expect. On careful examination it is possible to see traces of fingerprints, but the improvement in comparison to normal uncoated surfaces is striking.

The effect of the anti-fingerprint coating on this sheet of stainless steel is clearly evident.

The functional principle of a coloured protective coating retrofitted to a glass surface: 1 The coating material is applied with a slight excess to the glass (shown in blue). Colour pigments (red) and stabilisers (green) are contained within the matrix of the coating (shown in grey). 2 Removal of excess material by hand or machine. 3 Fully hardened protective coating.

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Functional principle of an anti-fingerprint coating (below) vs. an uncoated surface (above).

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the coating is used mainly for applications such as lifts, tirely transparent and as such cannot yet be used on clear glass. cladding and furniture. Over the last decade, sandblasted glass has become a Facility management benefits from this as well as other popular material in interior design. Translucence is nanocoatings as they lead to a reduction in cleaning particularly attractive as a design feature of doors, par- costs. The coating is effective also for smaller surfaces tition screens and furniture. However, the sandblasted where cleaning can be especially time-consuming. side of the glass is very susceptible to fingerprints. 'TYpical trouble spots, such as surfaces around doorWhere protection is necessary, a silicon coating is usu- knobs and grips, remain clean and look as good as ally applied to the surface. Unfortunately, when cleaned when first installed. such surfaces acquire a typical cloudy appearance. An A more recent innovation is a touch-proof coating that anti-fingerprint coating can avoid the disadvantages of can also be used for colouring matt glass. Coloured the silicon coating - the nanocoating ensures the last- matt glass is usually achieved using coloured glass, ing optical appearance of the glass. The coating not silk screen printing or coloured foils in combination only reduces the impact of fingerprints but also of dust, with laminated safety glass and is comparatively exwhich on smooth surfaces can be wiped away but be- pensive. A cheaper option is to apply coloured self-adcomes more ingrained and harder to remove from hesive foil to existing glass but the end result is not of sandblasted surfaces. At present the coating is not en- a high quality. A new cost-effective option is the use of

The critical area around doorknobs.

a coloured touch-proof nanocoating on etched or sandblasted glass. The intensity of the colour depends on the roughness of the glass and the angle you look at it. The colour palette is currently limited to pastel colours and it is not yet possible to specify exact colours. The colours remain colourfast when exposed to UV light and do not fade. An important aspect here, as with other nanocoatings, is scratch-resistance, which should be assessed carefully depending on where the product is to be used. Anti-fingerprint coatings are useful for stainless steel and sandblasted glass wherever one can expect people to touch them, i.e. where they are in easy reach. Nanocoatings enable glass and steel to be used for interiors without being impaired by visible finger- and handprints and obviate the need for regular cleaning; in short, to achieve a clean appearance.

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